Hottest US Apps of June 2016

By Joseph Schwartz

Hottest US Apps of June 2016

What were the hottest Android apps of June 2016? With SimilarWeb’s Usage Rank, which combines Current Installs and Daily Active Users, we can determine which apps became increasingly popular last month and which apps decreased in popularity and use. To check out the hottest and coldest apps of May 2016, see our post from last month here.

Interestingly, the hottest app of June, was also one of the hottest apps of May, as Yellow Booster continues its climb through the rankings. In April, the app ranked 19,694th overall and it then shot up to 594th in May, rising even further to 178th in June. This is even more impressive when you consider that popular apps such as LinkedIn and letgo were right there with Yellow Booster, as LinkedIn ranked 156th and letgo came in at 167th in June.

Other non-game apps that were trending in June include the official UEFA EURO 2016 app, which alongside the UEFA website, has seen a huge growth in traffic. Ramadan 2016, another non-game app that was trending in June, saw a huge increase in both installs and active users. With Ramadan coming to an end in early July, the app may see a sharp decrease in use and could be on next month’s list of apps trending down.

The rest of June’s trending apps were various games, headlines by Farm Heroes Super Saga. The King-developed app rose from 14,538th in May to 674th in June as both installs and users of the app skyrocketed.

King, who also develop all the Candy Crush games, are actually the top game publisher in the US overall. In fact, as of April 2016, King was the lead app developer in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Iran, Spain, UK, and over 80 other countries around the globe.

In May, Snake.io and Hungry Shark World were two of the trendiest apps around, ranking 2nd and 3rd overall on the hottest apps index. June, however, has been a different story and the early surge in app popularity was not sustainable as both apps dropped significantly in the rankings.

Going back even further, Clash Royale was the hottest app back in March 2016, when it rose from 534th to 22nd. Since then, the app has been able to maintain a high position but in June, it slipped 9 places, falling to 34th overall. Clash Royale, alongside Clash of Clans, Hay Day, and Boom Beach, are all developed by Supercell, who recently sold a majority stake in the company to Tencent for a reported $8.6 billion.

Another app trending down in June was Hulu, the video streaming service installed on roughly 7% of US Android devices. Since May, the app has dropped 55 spaces and fell to 205th overall. Despite this drop, Hulu still ranks higher than HBO NOW, Showtime Anytime, and Amazon Video when it comes to video streaming apps. The only video app to outrank Hulu is Netflix, an app that had an average daily usage time of one hour, 5 seconds in June 2016. Hulu’s average usage time was about 15 minutes lower, but still was enough to beat out the other big names in video streaming.

With the end of the US school year, 3 Education apps also saw a big drop in the app rankings. PowerSchool Mobile, an app that helps monitor assignments, grades, and attendance dropped from 381st to 918th, while ClassDojo, a classroom communication app fell from 316th to 932nd. The biggest drop, however, was Skyward Mobile Access who fell 1,236 spots in the app rankings, and as of June, ranked 1,764 overall.

Aside from the school year, June/late May also marked the end of several other events in the US: the NHL season and the 10th season of The Voice. The Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup on June 12th, 2016, and after that, the NHL official app saw a sharp decline in overall usage. The same can be said of The Voice app which dropped over 30,000 spots in the app rankings and will likely remain dormant until The Voice returns to the US on September 19th, 2016.

Joseph is a Digital Insights and Content Manager at SimilarWeb. He has experience in content writing, social media, and analytics. When not tracking digital trends and creating online content, Joseph enjoys hiking, basketball, pickling, and Canadian alternative music.